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Report to the Community 2013

Cedars-Sinai By the NumbersJuly 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012

896 Licensed beds (as of October 2012)

255,010 Patient days (approx. 700 per day)

611,410 Outpatient visits (approx. 1,680 per day)

49,186 Admissions

83,366 Emergency Department visits (approx. 230 per day)

121,903 Patients cared for by Cedars-Sinai Medical Network

1,131 Research projects

$48 million Research funding from NIH and other federal sources

495 Medical residents and fellows trained

$55.8 million Donations

218,176 Volunteer hours

$640.3 million Community Benefit contribution (Includes traditional charity care for the uninsured and those with limited means; the unreimbursed cost of caring for Medi-Cal and Medicare patients; translational and clinical research; health professions education; and hundreds of community service programs at the Medical Center and in local schools, homeless shelters and community centers.)

Lawrence B. Platt Chair, Board of Directors

Thomas M. Priselac President and CEO

CEDARS-SINAI REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY 2013 1

One of the overlooked aspects of the massive change going on in healthcare nationwide is its transformation from a difficult-to-navigate road of disconnected silos to a more coordinated path.

At Cedars-Sinai, we’re building bridges, literally and figuratively, to make the path easier for patients in need of compassionate, high-quality care; for healthcare professionals devoted to helping their patients; for medical researchers developing new treatments; and for communities of Los Angeles looking to become stronger by improving the health of their residents.

Among the many bridges we’ve recently built are a new institution-wide electronic medical record for each patient, CS-Link,™ which integrates the many different aspects of a patient’s care so that healthcare teams can make better, faster and coordinated treatment decisions, and patients can make appointments and communicate with their doctor online; an innovative program involving nurse practitioners who make follow-up “house calls” to patients after discharge; and our Regenerative Medicine Institute, where stem-cell scientists work with physicians in many different medical specialties to develop stem-cell treatments for a wide range of diseases.

One of our biggest bridges, the Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion, will open this summer. Its visionary design brings outpatient care and translational research together under one roof, allowing physicians and scientists to collaborate closely, breaking down another traditional silo in healthcare. And yes, the Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion is connected to the Medical Center by a bridge, literally.

Another silo-breaker is our ongoing, institution-wide Cedars-Sinai Medicine initiative, which has brought about improvements in quality of care by closely examining clinical processes for a wide range of diseases and conditions to optimize outcomes and value for our patients. We’re placing almost everything we do in the clinical arena under a microscope to determine the most efficient way to provide the best care.

Thank you for the partnerships and support that enable us to remain true to our mission while addressing today’s challenges in ways that make Cedars-Sinai a leader of change for healthcare across the nation.

Leadership Message

Patient CareEvery day, in everything we do at Cedars-Sinai, our actions are determined by how we answer this question: What’s best for our patients?

Patient CareCedars-Sinai is renowned for the highest quality patient care, dedication to patient satisfaction and rigorous attention to patient safety. The Medical Center is the largest nonprofit academic medical center in the Western United States, with 2,100 physicians and 2,800 nurses as well as thousands of other healthcare professionals and staff. Their combined efforts result in consistently high rankings for exceptional patient care.

It’s a distinction earned by only 14 percent of Joint Commission-accredited hospitals that reported core measure performance data in 2011: Cedars-Sinai has been honored as a Joint Commission “top performer” in such key quality areas as heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. In addition, Cedars-Sinai earned its hospital re-accreditation from The Joint Commission, the independent organization that accredits and certifies more than 17,000 U.S. healthcare organizations and programs.

After a 12-hour surgery, Michelle Johnson, a 39-year-old San Diego native and mother of three, became Cedars-Sinai’s first patient to receive the world’s only approved Total Artificial Heart. Six weeks later, Johnson was discharged from the hospital to wait for a matching donor heart at home — using the world’s first portable power supply for the Total Artificial Heart. Johnson was the 27th patient in the United States to be discharged using the portable driver as part of a Food and Drug Administration clinical study.

For the second year in a row, the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and Comprehensive Transplant Center ranked as the leader among all U.S. medical centers in performing adult heart and heart-lung transplants. The official statistics were compiled by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit organization that manages the nation’s transplant system. Cedars-Sinai surgeons performed heart transplants on 87 patients and heart-lung transplants on two patients in 2011.


As part of an aggressive hand-hygiene campaign to help prevent hospital-acquired infections, Cedars-Sinai used 61,000 pounds of hand sanitizer in 2011.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Group and Cedars-Sinai Health Associates have again been honored among the top physician groups in the state. For the eighth consecutive year, the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) has named the Medical Group a “Top Performer” in California. This ranks the group in the top 25 percent of the 200 physician groups reviewed on the basis of select healthcare quality measures. Among these measures are meaningful use of health information technology, patient experience and clinical measures that include priorities such as diabetes and cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and respiratory conditions as well as prevention. The Health Associates was one of eight physician organizations to receive the IHA’s Ronald P. Bangasser, MD, Memorial Award for Quality Improvement. Also, for the sixth year in a row, the Medical Group achieved “elite status” awarded by the California Association of Physician Groups. The Health Associates achieved “elite status” for the fourth time. This recognition is based on the ability to surpass stringent scoring standards in care management, information technology, accountability/transparency and patient care.

Cedars-Sinai’s Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute was the only cancer center in Los Angeles to receive a Commission on Cancer 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award for providing quality care and services to cancer patients. Less than 10 percent of all U.S. accredited cancer programs received the achievement award, which recognizes outstanding accomplishment in clinical management, research, and community outreach and quality improvement.

The Neurovascular Center, one of the largest referral programs on the West Coast for treatment of vascular disorders affecting the brain and spinal cord, was among the first to offer a new device that seals off some of the most difficult-to-treat aneurysms in a minimally invasive procedure. Aneurysms, weak areas of arteries that balloon out, can have catastrophic consequences if they burst, and large and wide-neck aneurysms have been especially challenging because the base of the “balloon” is very broad. The new tube-like device is placed in the artery to cover the defect, maintain blood flow through the artery and provide a mesh scaffold for blood vessel cells to grow and form a permanent, stable seal.

Patient Care

4 CEDARS-SINAI REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY 2013

Patient Care

For dancers of all ages, the Cedars-Sinai/USC Dramatic Arts Dance Medicine Center has leaped to the fore as a resource to care for them and their injuries — and sometimes to preserve and extend their careers. While audience members may be awestruck by the dancers’ graceful display of their art on stage, performers can take a grueling pounding to their feet, ankles, knees and backs in their extensive practice and time on stage. This can lead to aches, pains and damage that the center’s experts can address. They offer coaching and counseling in how to ease or avoid potentially harmful movement and provide treatment including physical therapy, surgery and other medical care.

Cedars-Sinai has 12 medical specialties nationally ranked among 2012–13 America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, and was named No. 2 among all hospitals in California. Cedars-Sinai is among an elite group of hospitals that had more than 10 specialties rated in the top 50 nationwide. Of the roughly 5,000 hospitals in the United States, fewer than 150 scored high enough to be ranked in even a single specialty. The 12 Cedars-Sinai specialties ranked were: cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; neurology and neurosurgery; gastroenterology; geriatrics; gynecology; nephrology; orthopedics; pulmonology; urology; diabetes and endocrinology; and ear, nose and throat.

One of the region’s leading hematology-oncology practices has joined the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation and the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute (SOCCI). With the addition of Tower Hematology Oncology Medical Group (THOMG), Cedars-Sinai can further expand the reach of clinical care and research programs that address the needs of cancer patients in the Los Angeles region and beyond. THOMG continues to be based at Wilshire Boulevard and Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills, and its outpatient services, infusion therapy, clinical trials, imaging and laboratory services are now being offered at SOCCI.

Cedars-Sinai’s commitment to quality is demonstrated through hospital-wide initiatives such as Cedars-Sinai Medicine, which involves more than 300 healthcare professionals working together on multidisciplinary teams to improve clinical processes for a wide range of diseases and conditions. Among changes that have led to better outcomes for patients are steps to ensure faster diagnostic testing and evaluations and education to guide patients through recovery and prevent complications.

Cedars-Sinai is among only a handful of institutions that have been accredited by the College of American Pathologists for more than four decades. This distinction demonstrates that the Medical Center meets the highest standards for all laboratory tests.


Patient Care

Studies show that prestigious nursing Magnet® hospitals like Cedars-Sinai experience better clinical outcomes, greater community satisfaction, lower patient mortality rates and higher staff retention. Already the hospital with the longest-running Magnet designation in California, Cedars-Sinai is in the redesignation process for its fourth Magnet award, which is given by the American Nurses Credentialing Center to healthcare organizations that demonstrate quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice.

Cedars-Sinai has launched an ambitious campaign to promote advance healthcare planning and encourage adults of all ages to make their healthcare wishes known before they face a medical crisis. As part of this long-term effort, a new, easy-to-use Cedars-Sinai Advance Healthcare Directive has been developed and is now available to the general public at no cost in both print and web versions (www.cedars-sinai.edu/directive). In a related pilot program, Cedars-Sinai Medical Group physicians will be encouraging patients to discuss their future healthcare preferences with their physicians during routine office visits and to fill out the advance directive.

Oncology experts at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute are providing clinical expertise and guidance to help shape WellPoint healthcare solutions using IBM Watson technology. IBM Watson can respond to inquiries posed in natural language and can learn from actions and outcomes. The hope is to tap its capacities, drawing from vast libraries of information, including medical evidence-based scientific and healthcare data, and clinical insights from institutions like Cedars-Sinai, to help physicians evaluate treatment options and to deliver these to them in just seconds for their assessment.

A Cedars-Sinai Medicine initiative focusing on early treatment for sepsis has significantly reduced the mortality rate among patients with this severe response to infection. The goal of Code Sepsis is to ensure that blood cultures are drawn promptly when sepsis is suspected, and that the first doses of antibiotics are given to patients in less than one hour.

Minimally invasive

procedures represent more than

one-third of surgeries at Cedars-Sinai, with

physicians using the most advanced

technology for laparoscopic and

robotic surgery.


Patient CareThe American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recognized Cedars-Sinai’s Stroke Program for earning the highest achievement in the organization’s initiative to improve outcomes for patients suffering strokes: the Get With the Guidelines Gold Plus award. The award is given to centers that maintain high performance levels for two years or more; the Plus designation represents additional compliance with certain quality measures. The Stroke Program is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission. It is an Approved Stroke Center of the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency and a regional referral center capable of providing comprehensive care for complex cases and critically ill patients as well as those with hemorrhagic strokes and those who may benefit from advanced technologies.

In 2011, the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center had the highest one-year liver transplant survival rate in Los Angeles County, with 90 percent of liver transplant patients reaching this milestone. The statistics are compiled by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, a nonprofit organization administered by the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation that designs and carries out rigorous scientific analyses of data for the transplant community.

Cedars-Sinai is one of only a handful of medical centers in the country with a dedicated CT screening program for patients at a higher risk of developing lung cancer. Using CT scans instead of chest X-rays to screen smokers for lung cancer not only leads to earlier detection, but also reduces the risk of dying from the disease by 20 percent, according to a National Cancer Institute study.

The Spiritual Care Department made great strides tending to the spiritual needs of patients, their families and staff, increasing and diversifying the Medical Center’s corps of professionally trained chaplains. The department ended the year with 11 chaplains, up from four last year, in response to growing patient demand and interest within the institution. Spiritual care leaders also refocused their mission: Chaplains were fully integrated into interdisciplinary healthcare teams and began attending rounds with doctors, nurses, social workers and others on more than 20 units. Interfaith chaplains were embedded in the Emergency Department, the Palliative Care team and the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute to better serve patients with spiritual needs in these busy areas. As a result of all these efforts, the Spiritual Care Department achieved a major milestone, surpassing 1,000 referrals per month from nurses, social workers and others, marking a 156 percent increase in demand at the end of FY 2012 compared to the same time a year earlier.

Cedars-Sinai is tackling the challenge of reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions by testing new healthcare strategies outside its walls. Nurses, social workers and other healthcare professionals closely monitored patients once they left the hospital, meeting with them and their families repeatedly at home or in a skilled nursing facility to coordinate individualized healthcare plans — to ensure that medications were taken, wounds were healing and doctors were visited.

More than 9,000 adults and children receive treatment annually at the Samuel Oschin Cancer Center, one of the busiest cancer treatment facilities in California. It’s also one of a handful nationwide to provide 24/7 outpatient cancer services.


Patient Care The Neuroscience Critical Care Unit recently expanded to 24 beds and, with its advanced technologies, has become one of the top units in the country. Experts provide care for a high volume of patients undergoing leading-edge neurosurgical procedures and suffering from a range of neurological disorders.

The Department of Radiation Oncology at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute is building a clinical program to treat locally advanced pancreatic cancer with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), giving a growing number of patients access to care that is not widely available in this region. At Cedars-Sinai, this technology has been used primarily to treat brain cancer, though it has been a therapy for lung and liver cancer as well. SBRT makes it possible to target tumors with greater precision and shorter treatment times. Patients at Cedars-Sinai have access to the full range of radiation therapy options for all types and stages of cancer — including high-dose-rate treatment, intensity modulated radiation therapy, respiratory and real-time prostate cancer motion management, Gamma Knife® radiosurgery, large bore-4D computed tomography and accelerated partial breast radiation therapy.

A Cedars-Sinai program provides extra support to parents about to bring their baby home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Maxine Dunitz Children’s Health Center. In the family suite, an apartment-like transitional space, parents take the lead in their child’s care during an overnight “dress rehearsal” while receiving hands-on training from nurses and physicians in tending to the specific needs of their baby.

Quality care at Cedars-Sinai includes the attention patients receive after they leave the hospital. Nurses make thousands of calls each month to patients at home to make sure they understand their discharge instructions and have been able to fill prescriptions, and to see if they have any further questions. For example, they check on new mothers to ask about pediatric follow-up appointments, and call congestive heart failure patients to ensure no problems are arising that might lead to a return trip to the hospital.


Patient Care

Cedars-Sinai won a civic award for a major beautification project of lush gardens, landscaped roadways and freshly painted buildings meant to transform the campus into an urban oasis. The Medical Center received a Community Impact Award from the Los Angeles Business Council for this project, which will be completed in 2014. Cedars-Sinai is undertaking the extensive makeover to tie together a campus that accommodates up to 20,000 patients, medical staff and visitors on a typical day.

In response to community need for after-hours care for nonemergency illness and injury, Cedars-Sinai expanded its Urgent Care hours in 2012. Cedars-Sinai Medical Group physicians are now available seven days a week, from noon to 9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends, to provide medical care for adults and children with conditions that are not life threatening. Services are available for patients of Cedars-Sinai Medical Group and Cedars-Sinai Health Associates as well as the local community. For easy access, no appointment is necessary and patient parking is validated. Urgent Care is located at 8501 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 150, in Beverly Hills.

Surgeons at Cedars-Sinai are using radiofrequency ablation technology to eradicate a serious esophageal condition that can be a precursor to cancer. Up to a third of patients with this condition, known as Barrett’s esophagus, already have cancerous cells that are missed during biopsies, but the noninvasive surgical procedure destroys these cells.

At the Center for Weight Loss, losing excess pounds is a team effort, with surgery patients supported by physicians, surgeons, registered dietitians, social workers and other professionals. The center also recognizes other critical members of this support team: the patient’s family. The Center for Weight Loss offers seminars for the families of surgical patients, to answer their concerns and train them in supporting their loved one through surgery and in making the life changes necessary for success.

Thoracic surgeons at the Women’s Guild Lung Institute are using a new imaging technology that gives them a better look at the lungs, allowing them to treat areas that could not be reached before as well as to help guide radiation therapy. Through a process called a navigational bronchoscopy, images of a patient’s lung are used to guide treatment of lesions in remote areas of the organ. In addition, this technology allows surgeons to put markers into the lung that allow for targeted radiation so only the cancerous portion of the lung is treated.

A total of 5,875 gallons of acrylic paint were applied on more than 885,250 square feet of exterior walls as structures at the Medical Center were repainted in a “champagne” color.


Patient Care The Cancer Survivorship and Rehabilitation Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute offers cancer survivors a wide variety of psychological, social and physical programs designed to empower those in treatment as well as those who are cancer-free but still suffer from the effects of treatment. While already recognized for innovations such as an individually tailored cancer exercise recovery program and a classroom course on “chemobrain” management, the survivorship program continues to grow in new directions.

With new upgrades that give the Labor and Delivery Unit a spa-like feeling, mothers will be giving birth at Cedars-Sinai in more comfort than ever. The first of four phases of renovations for Labor and Delivery are complete after eight months of construction. This phase includes four spacious new labor and delivery rooms and a new operating room geared toward meeting the needs of families having twins, triplets or other multiple births. Spacious bathrooms accompany each room, with showers or large soaking tubs for comfort. Recessed lighting and wood floors help to create a spa-like atmosphere in the renovated areas.

Cedars-Sinai is one of only a few centers to offer an incision-free procedure to relieve severe heartburn. The incisionless endoscopic procedure treats gastroesophageal reflux disease by passing a device down the throat to repair the valve that connects the stomach to the esophagus.

The Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute is one of only two programs in the country offering bloodless bone marrow transplants to Jehovah’s Witnesses with lymphoma, multiple myeloma and other blood cancers. Blood conservation techniques, drugs that stimulate patients’ blood production and the transplant team’s specialized care make it possible for these patients to be transplanted successfully, with results similar to those of traditional transplants. Because of the program’s success, Jehovah’s Witnesses now come to Cedars-Sinai from all over the U.S. and the world.

A group of medical and policy leaders at Cedars-Sinai welcomed Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez for a thoughtful exchange of ideas about the complex issues involved in end-of-life decisions. He used insights from this visit in a column about how he dealt with the final months of his father’s life. “The medical staff,” he wrote of Cedars-Sinai, “is searching for ways to better help families make hard decisions, limit patient suffering and avoid costly medical procedures that extend dying more than they prolong life.” The interdisciplinary committee is examining the quality and appropriateness of end-of-life care as part of a large-scale, multiyear Cedars-Sinai Medicine initiative.

More than 4,000 museum-quality pieces of art help create a vibrant healing environment for Cedars-Sinai patients, visitors and employees. The collection was established by Marcia Simon Weisman in the 1970s when her husband, Frederick, was a patient. Inspired by the curative powers of art, Marcia Weisman was instrumental in building the collection of original paintings, sculptures and drawings — all donated. The artists whose works are displayed around the Medical Center include Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, David Hockney and Judy Chicago, among many others.

Portrait of Marcia Simon Weisman by Andy Warhol


Focus on:CS-Link™

A High-Tech Advance to Link Patients, MDs Cedars-Sinai hit a milestone in its “one patient, one record” initiative when CS-Link™ went live. My CS-Link™ launched for some patients shortly afterward.

Integrating the many different aspects of a patient’s care into a single electronic medical record allows healthcare teams to make better, faster and coordinated treatment decisions. In 2012, Cedars-Sinai took a major step closer to realizing its “one patient, one record” vision with the go-live of the third phase of its new electronic health record, CS-Link.™ For the first time in the organization’s history, physicians and staff members are connected via a single integrated system. Medical staff members now use CS-Link to manage treatment orders in all inpatient care areas. Benefits of the electronic health record system include improved efficiency and communication among caregivers, which leads to higher quality patient care.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Group patients now have online access to manage their medical information any time, anywhere they have an Internet connection. This year the Medical Group took the lead in providing secure online access to personal medical information through My CS-Link,™ a patient portal that centralizes and offers patients immediate access to personal medical information. The system allows patients to request appointments or prescription renewals, view portions of their medical records, communicate with their physician’s office via secure email and generally become more actively involved in management of their healthcare.

ResearchInnovative research is not an end in itself at Cedars-Sinai. It’s how we expand the universe of medical options for patients in ways that get results — including earlier diagnoses, more effective treatments and more favorable outcomes.

ResearchAn international leader in biomedical research, Cedars-Sinai now is conducting more than 1,100 studies to advance treatment for a broad spectrum of diseases and conditions. Renowned physician-scientists at the Medical Center are creating new approaches to healing such as using cardiac stem cells to repair damaged hearts, fighting brain cancer with a vaccine that enhances the immune response and developing new types of drugs to target cancer more precisely and keep it from spreading. Research encompasses the spectrum from basic science examining fundamental biological processes underlying disease to clinical studies that give patients experimental access today to therapies of tomorrow. Cedars-Sinai is ranked in the top tier of independent hospitals nationwide that receive competitive research funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Treating heart attack patients with an infusion of their own cardiac stem cells helps damaged hearts regrow healthy muscle, according to results of a path-breaking Cedars-Sinai clinical trial as published in The Lancet. Patients who underwent the experimental stem cell procedure demonstrated a significant reduction in the size of the scar left on the heart muscle by a heart attack as well as a sizable increase in healthy heart muscle. One year after treatment, scar size was reduced by an average of about 50 percent, from 24 percent to 12 percent of the heart mass.

Researchers at the Saul and Joyce Brandman Breast Center — A Project of Women’s Guild at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute have found that removing lymph nodes due to the presence of microscopic cancer cells in the sentinel lymph node has no impact on survival outcomes of women with early-stage breast cancer. The study builds on previous findings challenging the commonly held belief that removing all lymph nodes was key to improving surgical survival rates. This research has revolutionized the way surgeons treat early-stage breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes, providing a growing body of evidence that women diagnosed early can be spared the pain and side effects of comprehensive lymph node removal so they can enjoy better quality of life after surgery.


More than 800 papers by Cedars-Sinai researchers on studies and advances in biomedical science are published annually in peer-reviewed academic medical and scientific journals.

Research Cedars-Sinai researchers revealed the mystery of how an inflammatory molecule is produced in the body in a discovery that could advance the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases that affect millions of people. Researchers from the Department of Pediatrics identified the mechanism that leads to the production of the molecule interleukin-1beta — a major contributor to inflammation, which lies at the root of many serious health conditions. Existing drug therapies try to block the molecule’s action after it is secreted by cells. The new research could lead to development of treatments that would prevent production of this molecule, resulting in more effective medications and therapies for inflammatory diseases.

Cedars-Sinai’s Kidney Transplant Immunotherapy Program has developed groundbreaking antibody treatments to improve transplant rates in patients who face a higher risk of rejecting a transplanted organ. Nationally, every year, less than 10 percent of patients who have significant amounts of antibodies in their blood receive the lifesaving kidney transplant they need. Antibodies are specific proteins that cause the body’s immune response to reject a transplanted organ. They can be induced by pregnancies, previous unsuccessful organ transplants or blood transfusions. The new antibody treatments developed at Cedars-Sinai improve transplant rates among highly sensitized patients to 70 percent, while achieving patient survival and transplant success rates similar to patients who do not have significant amounts of antibodies in their blood.

Catheter-based heart valve procedures offer some heart patients better chances of survival and improved quality of life than standard medical therapy, according to a study by Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute physicians. This finding, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is based on results from a multicenter clinical trial in which patients diagnosed with aortic stenosis who were too frail to be candidates for open-heart surgery underwent catheter-based procedures or went on standard medical therapy.

Two decades after pioneering minimally invasive surgery for lung cancer, surgeons in the Women’s Guild Lung Institute continue to be the leaders in this field. Their research shows that cancer can be effectively eliminated by removing only a portion of the affected lobe of the lung instead of the entire lobe, as is the most common practice.


ResearchThe Urologic Oncology Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute is launching research focusing on active surveillance for men diagnosed with low-risk, slow-growing prostate cancer. Known as proactive surveillance, this approach involves keeping a close and regular watch on the often slow-growing cancer before deciding whether to proceed with surgery, radiation and other interventions. Because it is known that a high proportion of men undergo unnecessary prostate cancer treatments, Cedars-Sinai is leading the development of the National Proactive Surveillance Network in concert with Johns Hopkins and the Prostate Cancer Foundation to gain a better understanding of how low-grade cancers behave. The goal is to spare men with slow-growing cancer from the harm associated with intervention while personalizing and optimizing treatment for those at greater risk.

With the opening of the Neuromuscular Division as part of the Department of Neurology and the Regenerative Medicine Institute, Cedars-Sinai created one of the most comprehensive programs in the state to study and to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), muscular dystrophies, spinal muscular atrophies and other poorly understood disorders that start in nerve cells and electrical signaling. Cedars-Sinai then became the first West Coast site — and one of only three nationwide — to implant a device under recently approved Food and Drug Administration guidelines that stimulates chest respiratory muscles and draws air into the lungs of patients suffering from ALS.

Researchers found that two prevalent drug therapies — rifaximin and lubiprostone — offer some of the most promising options for treating irritable bowel syndrome, a widespread disorder that affects up to one in five Americans. The Cedars-Sinai researchers determined that rifaximin and lubiprostone were least likely to cause side effects when compared to other common treatments. In a separate study, Cedars-Sinai researchers definitively linked overgrowth of bacteria in the gut to the disease, the first study to do so by using cultures derived from the small intestine.

In a Phase I clinical trial, Cedars-Sinai’s experimental immune-based therapy more than doubled median survival of patients newly diagnosed with the most aggressive malignant brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme. Median survival in the study at the Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center was 38.4 months, significantly longer than the typical 14.6-month survival of patients receiving standard therapy alone, which includes radiation and chemotherapy. The vaccine targets antigens involved in the development of glioblastoma cells and may attack some brain cancer stem cells, considered the original source of tumor cells. The vaccine was researched and developed at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a four-year, $1.4 million grant to the Department of Neurology to study an unexpected recent discovery: After ischemic stroke — the type caused by a clogged artery but with no bleeding into the brain — a normal protein that plays a beneficial role in blood clotting escapes intact arteries and damages healthy brain cells. Researchers knew the protein, thrombin, leaked out during hemorrhagic strokes — those in which an artery ruptures — and knew that large amounts killed brain cells. But they were surprised to find similar events after ischemic stroke. With the grant, researchers will use fluorescence technology to “light up” thrombin and follow its migration and interaction with other molecules in blood vessels and brain tissue.


More than 100 research projects led by nurses have been completed or are ongoing at Cedars-Sinai, including studies of ways to reduce surgical site infections, prevent patient falls and improve pain management.

Research The Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute has created disease-in-a-dish models for diseases including spinal muscular atrophy and Huntington’s disease. The spinal muscular atrophy model has allowed researchers to better understand how motor neurons die in patients with the disease. This is an important step closer to identifying drugs to treat this genetic disease, a leading cause of death in infants and toddlers. The Huntington’s disease model was developed with an international consortium, and allows scientists for the first time to test potential treatments for this fatal inherited disorder directly on human cells.

The Cedars-Sinai Biobank and Translational Research Core, a central biorepository of blood and tissue specimens, is being developed as a valuable resource for translational science that focuses on creating new avenues for personalized treatments. The tissues in the biobank — catalogued in a database that includes clinical, demographic and follow-up data — will be used by researchers to determine how the same disease can take a markedly different course in different individuals. The bank has started with a focus on cancer, and is developing tools to help determine the best individualized treatment for each patient and the likelihood of response or resistance to novel cancer drugs.

Cedars-Sinai researchers have linked Kawasaki disease, a serious childhood illness that causes inflammation of blood vessels throughout the body, with early-onset and accelerated atherosclerosis, a leading cause of heart disease in adults. Aggressive early treatment of the blood vessel inflammation caused by Kawasaki disease may reduce the future risk of developing accelerated atherosclerosis. Up to 25 percent of children with Kawasaki disease will develop inflammation of the coronary arteries, making it the leading cause of acquired heart disease among children in developed countries.

A Cedars-Sinai study showed that drinking red wine in moderation may reduce one of the risk factors for breast cancer, providing a natural weapon to combat a major cause of death among U.S. women. The findings challenged the widely held belief that all types of alcohol consumption heighten the risk of breast cancer by increasing estrogen levels, thereby fostering cancer cell growth. The Cedars-Sinai study found that chemicals in the skins and seeds of red grapes slightly lowered estrogen levels while elevating testosterone in premenopausal women who

drank eight ounces of red wine nightly for about a month. White wine lacked the same effect. Researchers concluded that women who

occasionally drink alcohol might want to reassess their choices with this potential benefit of red wine in mind.

The Cedars-Sinai Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute is one of only a few institutes nationwide devoted to the study of these two serious public health crises. Researchers at the new Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute have launched studies examining the mechanism that allows bariatric surgery to control diabetes, in the hope of defining new therapies for diabetic patients. They also are investigating the role of sleep in diabetes risk and studying the physiology of obesity and how it changes the body’s metabolic and cardiovascular systems.


Research

Neurosurgeons at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute are adapting an ultraviolet camera to possibly bring planet-exploring technology into the operating room. A pilot study seeks to determine if the camera, on loan from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, provides visual detail that might help surgeons distinguish areas of healthy brain from deadly tumors called gliomas, which have irregular borders spreading into normal brain tissue. Delineating the margin where tumor cells end and healthy cells begin never has been easy, but the ultraviolet camera might be able to see below the surface. A chemical accumulates in tumor cells but not in healthy cells and emits ultraviolet light that may be captured by the camera, which employs technology used in space to study planets and distant galaxies.

The Women’s Cancer Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute is developing personalized therapeutic approaches to enable targeted attacks on gynecologic and breast cancers. Physicians and scientists are working together to identify novel targets for molecular therapy. Strategies include performing molecular profiling of recurrent cancers, seeking markers that improve selection of neoadjuvant treatment, and studying toxicity of drugs for specific cancer types. This work will increase understanding of how tumors change with recurrence, help to “reposition” drugs to be more effective and clarify what role, if any, DNA might play in treatment decisions.

Leaders in stem cell research from the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute were key presenters at the World Stem Cell Summit, the largest interdisciplinary regenerative medicine meeting. Cedars-Sinai researchers and clinicians discussed scientific advances as well as best practices in a variety of areas, including causes and treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), umbilical cord blood banking, heart muscle regeneration, ethics and safety.

Nearly 30 percent of the 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. today are 50 and older. Cedars-Sinai researchers are studying the challenges of an aging HIV population.


Research Cedars-Sinai played a leading role in a global consortium of physician-scientists who identified a specific genetic variation that may predispose people to double the risk of experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest, a disorder that gives little warning and is fatal in about 95 percent of cases. Unlike heart attacks, which are typically caused by clogged coronary arteries reducing blood flow to the heart muscle, sudden cardiac arrest is the result of defective electrical impulses. Patients may have little or no warning, and the disorder usually causes nearly instantaneous death. Every year, 300,000 to 350,000 people in the United States and up to 5 million worldwide die from sudden cardiac arrest.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute $17.8 million to develop a novel combination of stem cell and gene therapy to treat ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive and currently incurable neurodegenerative disease. The grant is the largest of its kind ever received by Cedars-Sinai.

Alzheimer’s disease, a chronic and fatal condition that impairs memory and cognition, is the focus of a prestigious research grant recently awarded to Cedars-Sinai by the National Institutes of Health to study potential treatments for Alzheimer’s patients, including drugs that could disrupt formation and accumulation of sticky amyloid plaques that build up in the brain and are widely considered a root cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists at the F. Widjaja Foundation Inflammatory Bowel and Immunobiology Research Institute (IBIRI) at Cedars-Sinai identified more than 100 different types of fungus living in the gut, and found evidence that these micro-organisms may play an important role in inflammatory diseases such as ulcerative colitis. These findings were published in the journal Science. The multidisciplinary institute is devoted to basic, translational and clinical research on inflammatory bowel disease and mucosal inflammation.


Research

The Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute opened the Board of Governors Experimental Therapeutics Program with its own six-bed unit where specially trained physicians and nurses provide care for patients enrolled in Phase I clinical trials. This new program will enable Cedars-Sinai to bring new anticancer drugs from the laboratory to the clinic, and will encourage collaborative translational research to accelerate new drug development. For example, Cedars-Sinai is working with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) on clinical trials of new therapies aimed at molecular targets in prostate, kidney, bladder and colorectal cancers. Through a partnership with Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, researchers are studying the biological basis of lung and brain cancers to gain knowledge that could lead to more effective treatments.

Cedars-Sinai’s Biomedical Imaging Research Institute offers in one unit all the imaging equipment a scientist might need for a study, from single-cell to whole-body imaging. It is designed for imaging both laboratory animal and human research subjects, which not only is convenient for researchers but also facilitates direct application of findings from animal models to human subjects. The institute develops novel imaging techniques to address basic and clinical research questions, and provides education and training opportunities for students, postdoctoral researchers and clinical fellows.

Scientists at the Regenerative Medicine Institute are examining ways stem cells may be used to combat blindness caused by traumatic head and eye injuries. Early study suggests that an intravenous injection of bone marrow-derived stem cells can heal injured optic nerves and targeted neurons in the brain.

Cedars-Sinai’s Technology Transfer Office, which manages an intellectual property portfolio of nearly 200 technologies, is dedicated to bringing innovations from the laboratory to the marketplace to benefit patients worldwide.


Merging Innovative Science and Medicine in a Building of the Future The world-class healthcare facility Cedars-Sinai is building at the southwest corner of San Vicente and Gracie Allen — designed for the kind of interaction among physicians and scientists that leads to medical breakthroughs — is on track to open in summer 2013.

The Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion (AHSP) reached two major milestones this past year, with full enclosure of the building in early spring and completion of the two pedestrian bridges in summer 2012. On Father’s Day, a crane hoisted the second and final section of the Pavilion’s 5th floor Sue and Bill Gross Skywalk pedestrian bridge into the air, while construction workers maneuvered it into place to connect the 11-story Pavilion to the Medical Center high above Sherbourne Avenue.

Workers are already moving major equipment into the 820,000-square-foot building, and landscapers have been planting trees and other greenery as part of an ongoing campus-wide beautification project that began with the repainting of the Medical Center.

Once completed, the Pavilion will feature outpatient clinics, procedure space and state-of-the-art research laboratories with large open lab suites and shared office spaces.

“This facility allows us to integrate research and clinical care under one roof and will transform patient care,” says Thomas M. Priselac, president and CEO.

One-hundred tons. One-hundred feet.

That’s the weight and length of

steel beams that make up the 5th floor Sue and

Bill Gross Skywalk bridge linking the Advanced Health

Sciences Pavilion to the Medical Center.



The Pavilion is designed with open, comfortable spaces to provide a patient-friendly healthcare environment. It will include for employees, patients and visitors the AHSP café, an education center, imaging, Pre-Procedure Center and an outpatient pharmacy. The Pavilion also features five levels of parking.

As an eco-friendly building, the Pavilion is designed to meet the requirements of a Gold Certified building under the U.S. Green Building Council LEED Program.

It features an innovative double glass walled exterior that provides both energy savings and thermal comfort for occupants. Automated building control systems will regulate the building’s energy use. Solar panels on the rooftop of Parking Lot 4, located adjacent to the Pavilion, will provide power to the parking garage.

Focus on:Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion

21

Community Outreach

The passion for healing that is part of Cedars-Sinai’s DNA doesn’t stop at the borders of our campus – it also encompasses the health needs of vulnerable residents throughout Los Angeles.

Community Outreach

Since Cedars-Sinai’s beginning more than a century ago, the Medical Center and its healthcare professionals have addressed the community’s health needs with a special sensitivity to those who are most vulnerable. In FY 2012 alone, Cedars-Sinai’s contribution to Community Benefit activities totaled $640.3 million. This included providing access to essential healthcare for those in greatest need — the uninsured and underinsured — and the unreimbursed cost of care for Medi-Cal and Medicare patients; partnering with community organizations in offering free programs and services that address such health issues as obesity, diabetes and heart disease in schools, senior centers and mobile clinics, among other sites; conducting biomedical research that leads to lifesaving discoveries; and training the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Cedars-Sinai’s Healthy Habits programs are part of a strategic effort to combat childhood obesity and to reduce or prevent the devastating health effects associated with poor eating habits and lack of physical activity. These programs work not only with children but also with parents to encourage supportive environments conducive to healthy choices and healthier lives. They annually reach more than 2,500 elementary and middle school children, teachers, parents and families through more than 17,000 educational encounters.

Every year, severe injuries from motor vehicle crashes, falls, knife or gunshot wounds and accidents bring patients to Cedars-Sinai for treatment. Trauma is the leading cause of death in the United States for people younger than 45. As one of only four Level I trauma centers in Los Angeles County, and the only one not operated by the government, Cedars-Sinai is indispensable to the trauma care network in this region. During FY 2012, the trauma center treated 1,056 patients. In addition to the full continuum of trauma care, the center provides leadership in injury-prevention programs, research, education, community outreach and trauma system planning.

Diabetes education and screenings are powerful weapons in the fight against this debilitating condition. In FY 2012, Cedars-Sinai provided free blood sugar screenings to more than 2,900 people at 20 different clinics in various locations throughout Los Angeles.


Community Outreach

The Grocery Store Tour program offered by Cedars-Sinai in partnership with the Los Angeles Urban League helps families in the Crenshaw district by teaching skills for making healthy and budget-friendly choices at the grocery store. Participants in this four-week course learn how to read food labels and make smart selections, such as buying the freshest produce and leanest cuts of meat as well as whole-wheat bread and high-fiber, low-sugar cereal.

A case of the flu can be life threatening for vulnerable individuals at greater risk of serious complications. For more than 20 years, Cedars-Sinai has stepped in to provide free immunizations to seniors and others at high risk. In FY 2012, working hand in hand with community partners that help with outreach and provide vaccine clinic sites, Cedars-Sinai health professionals administered 644 free influenza and pneumococcal vaccines at 10 locations in underserved communities throughout Los Angeles.

With programs in more than two dozen public schools, Cedars-Sinai’s Psychological Trauma Center helps heal the emotional wounds of children who have witnessed or experienced gang violence, domestic abuse, suicide, homelessness, drug abuse, natural disasters and other tragedies. Through school-based art therapy, crisis intervention and counseling, the center enhances at-risk children’s ability to learn in the classroom, change destructive behaviors and envision a brighter future. In FY 2012, the center also initiated classroom interventions to combat bullying and a parent education program,

and its programs logged 29,636 contacts with children, teachers and parents.


Community Outreach

Cedars-Sinai medical residents volunteer at free clinics that are crucial components of the Los Angeles region’s healthcare safety net, expanding the clinics’ capacity to serve those with limited access to medical care. These experiences lead many to continue to serve vulnerable populations long after completing their residency and starting their own practice. During FY 2012, the Medical Center’s residents logged more than 8,200

patient visits at a variety of sites, including the Mission Clinic, which serves the homeless on downtown’s Skid Row, as well as The Saban Free Clinic, Clínica Oscar Romero and the Venice Family Clinic.

All too often, a teen in crisis feels adults cannot possibly understand, and that friends might laugh at their problems or abandon them. Since 1980, the TEEN LINE peer counseling hotline has been based at Cedars-Sinai, giving troubled teens a chance to talk with a peer who is trained to listen and to help those who are struggling with abuse, drugs and alcohol, depression, homelessness, gangs, pregnancy and other issues. More than 10,000 teens call the hotline each year, while the TEEN LINE website receives more than 140,000 visits and others access the text message program. TEEN LINE also connects with young people through presentations at schools and other community sites, and through workshops on such topics as teen suicide, tolerance and growing up gay.

Cedars-Sinai’s COACH for Kids and Their Families,® a program of the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Children’s Health Center, provides no-cost health and social services to underserved communities across 25 zip codes in Los Angeles. Staffed by a team of bilingual healthcare professionals, the two state-of-the-art COACH mobile medical units travel to schools, homeless shelters and neighborhood facilities, serving those who might otherwise have no access to medical care. COACH for Kids recently was selected as one of 20 school-based programs nationwide to receive a grant from the National Assembly on School-based Health Care to enhance dental health services for students in underserved communities. Since the COACH program was launched in 1994, more than 148,000 individuals have received vital healthcare services free of charge. In FY 2012, COACH provided more than 31,424 services.

Cedars-Sinai handles approximately 6,500 requests for language translation each month. Nearly 550 interpreters translate 45 different languages, including Spanish, Russian, Armenian, Farsi, Korean and Mandarin.


Community Outreach

Teens, pre-med college students, community-minded adults and energetic seniors are among the 2,915 volunteers who donated 218,176 hours to Cedars-Sinai in FY 2012. Volunteers make invaluable contributions to quality care and service as they do a multitude of important tasks, including assisting at information desks, delivering flowers, helping with medical research, performing music to soothe patients and visitors, and bringing therapy dogs to share canine companionship with patients.

During FY 2012, 50 area high school juniors and seniors took their first steps toward a fulfilling career in healthcare by participating in Cedars-Sinai’s Youth Employment & Development (YED) program. While they gain high school credits, invaluable mentoring and hospital work experience, students also earn wages that can help them pay for college. More than 400 students have participated in this job training program since it began in 1993. Nearly all the students go on to college, and many of them are the first in their families to do so.

Cedars-Sinai was the first medical center to offer genetic screenings for four common inherited disorders within the Persian Jewish population: an anesthesia sensitivity, a salt-losing disorder, a multiple hormone deficiency and an incurable muscle disorder that can be crippling to young adults. The hope is that in time, through screening and education, these disorders can be eliminated from the Persian Jewish population, and this program can be a model for screening other ethnic groups for inherited disorders.

After experiencing a life-changing event, whether medical or psychological, the path toward healing is not always easy or clear. Cedars-Sinai offers numerous free support groups that enable thousands of patients every year to share experiences, receive new information and find comfort in the knowledge that they are not alone. These include cancer support groups such as one that helps survivors overcome the challenges of “chemobrain,” the “One Stroke Ahead” Young Person’s Stroke Support Group and groups that provide education and support for families of newborns.

Donations to Cedars-Sinai’s

community blood collection

program totaled 28,000 units of

lifesaving blood and blood products

in FY 2012.


Community Outreach

Community health education lectures led by physicians, nurses, dietitians and other Cedars-Sinai healthcare professionals provide information and insights on such topics as nutrition, weight management and the importance of regular exercise as well as on conditions including diabetes, stroke and skin cancer. In FY 2012, these lectures — which have a strong emphasis on how to prevent health problems — reached more than 2,344 people from all walks of life. Organized in collaboration with the Medical Center’s many community partners, the lectures are offered free of charge at senior centers, places of worship and other locations throughout Los Angeles.

Cedars-Sinai launched an innovative childrearing workshop to help expectant Jewish couples integrate Judaism’s traditions into their family lives. The workshop, repeated several times throughout the year, attracted a range of couples, including those unaffiliated with Jewish institutions or in interfaith relationships and others who lived far from immediate family members. During the three-hour workshop with rabbis from Cedars-Sinai’s spiritual care team, couples explored customs for welcoming boys and girls, naming traditions, Friday night Sabbath observances and other aspects of Jewish life. The intention is to expand the pilot effort to families from other religious and cultural traditions.

The many health fairs that Cedars-Sinai organizes or supports can open the door to better health, and even save lives. Through various free health services and screenings, the Medical Center’s healthcare professionals often identify signs of serious health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease that might otherwise go untreated. One of the largest health fairs Cedars-Sinai supports is the Telemundo 52 Salud & Bienestar (Health & Wellness) Expo. The event drew more than 25,000 people in 2012 and involved a team of 280 Cedars-Sinai physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.


EducationCedars-Sinai’s role as a nonprofit academic medical center that trains future physicians, nurses and others is more important than ever as our nation faces a critical shortage of healthcare professionals.

EducationThe graduate medical education program at Cedars-Sinai prepares the next generation of physicians to provide quality care in a changing healthcare environment. Residency programs include anesthesiology, pediatrics with medical genetics, dentistry, diagnostic radiology, internal medicine, medical genetics, neurological surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology and laboratory medicine, podiatric surgery, general surgery and thoracic surgery. New training programs were launched this year in neurology, orthopedic surgery and urology.

Cedars-Sinai’s Graduate Program in Biomedical Science and Translational Medicine achieved an important milestone this year when it earned accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, affirming it meets the most rigorous standards of higher learning. The PhD program, which will award its first diplomas in 2013, reflects Cedars-Sinai’s commitment to medical innovation and training, and to advancing the frontiers of scientific scholarship.

Cedars-Sinai’s culture of continuous education to improve quality of care is supported by a wide range of educational opportunities, including a new program for nursing called Rising Stars. This yearlong program provides leadership training to clinical nurses like Gregory Eichelzer, MSN, RN, who want to advance their careers and play a greater leadership role in patient quality and safety initiatives. Nurses accepted into the interactive program spend about eight hours a month attending presentations, participating in classroom activities and completing a leadership project.

Spiritual care leaders took an important step toward professionalizing Cedars-Sinai’s growing chaplaincy corps by establishing a Clinical Pastoral Education program to train future chaplains and clergy. The program welcomes its first class of chaplaincy students in January 2013, providing them with intensive professional clinical training on their paths to becoming professional chaplains or clergy, and further adding to the diversity and size of the spiritual care team.

A total of 495 physicians-in-training are enrolled in medical residency and fellowship programs that offer education and clinical experience in about 80 specialty and subspecialty areas.


Education The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education approved a new neurology residency training program at Cedars-Sinai. Residents in the three-year program will study with research and treatment experts in stroke, critical care, movement disorders, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, headache and neuromuscular disease. They will work in inpatient and outpatient settings and gain proficiency in electroencephalography, electro-myography and other sophisticated techniques to study neurological conditions. The program was designed to give residents increasing independence; elective time is built into the third year for focused research or more clinical experience. The Medical Center’s large and diverse patient population will allow residents to see a wide array of neurological disorders, including rare conditions.

Cedars-Sinai received the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s approval for an obstetric anesthesiology fellowship program. The yearlong fellowship provides advanced experience and training in all aspects of obstetric anesthesiology, including research and administration as well as clinical care for both normal and high-risk patients.

The Clinical Scholars Program for fellows and junior faculty provides funding, career guidance, education and skill acquisition for aspiring clinical scientists. Participants spend their first year studying a curriculum in translational medicine and clinical research. They conduct full-time research in their second year under the supervision of a mentor. Those with projects judged to be most competitive for future funding receive assistance for up to a year of full-time research and are guided in pursuing future support such as a National Institutes of Health career development award.

Cedars-Sinai’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) program was awarded Accreditation with Commendation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, making it one of a small number of such programs in the United States to achieve this designation in three consecutive surveys. CME courses are offered each year to keep physicians on the leading edge of medical practice. Physician experts from around the world frequently are featured in these courses. Single focus and multidisciplinary educational offerings are designed to improve the quality of care offered by Cedars-Sinai and its medical staff.

Third- and fourth-year medical students gain knowledge and experience in a hospital environment through clerkships at Cedars-Sinai. About 500 students completed more than 600 clerkships in FY 2012 in fields including anesthesiology, medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and surgery. Students came from more than 60 medical schools across the country — including Johns Hopkins, the University of Washington, Columbia and Northwestern — as well as USC and UCLA.

In the Regenerative Medicine Institute’s first-ever program for high school students, scientists taught teens the basics of stem cell research. Students worked side-by-side with researchers in the institute’s state-of- the-art induced pluripotent stem cell core, giving them a taste of life as a medical scientist. Students earned a $500 stipend for completing the program.


Education

Since Cedars-Sinai’s Brainworks program started in 1998, the annual event that introduces young people to the excitement and benefits of careers in science and medicine has developed something of a following. As always, some of this year’s participants were students from the Los Angeles Unified School District. But most were from independent groups — Greater New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, Lighthouse Church School and an after-school program called FAMLI Inc. — whose leaders learned about Brainworks from friends or stories in the media. They said they wanted to give their science-directed students an opportunity to attend the fun, hands-on educational event, which gives participants a chance to hold surgical instruments and perform virtual surgery on a phantom skull. Reviewing highlights of the day, one student said, “I liked that they actually help you get motivated to want to be a doctor.” Another liked “that you actually get to see what surgeons do, and the brain.”

As part of its commitment to increasing the number of nurses with advanced degrees, Cedars-Sinai hosted an open house to allow nurses to explore opportunities to earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The event — sponsored by the Ambulatory Clinical Practice Council, Organization Development Department and Geri and Richard Brawerman Nursing Institute — showcased nine nursing schools.

The Medical Student Volunteer Program at Cedars-Sinai matches college students who are applying to medical schools with a mentoring physician and gives them exposure to more than 20 different medical specialties, including oncology, anesthesiology and transplantation. During the course of their yearlong “mini-residency,” participants may have an opportunity to attend grand rounds and lectures as well as to observe within a clinical setting.

Cedars-Sinai’s Brawerman Nursing Institute has provided free educational programs and financial help to more than 1,000 nurses since it was founded in 2002.


PhilanthropyWith generosity, passion and commitment, donors help Cedars-Sinai realize a singular vision of a stronger and healthier world.

PhilanthropyAt Cedars-Sinai, our work is collaborative — a critical partnership built on the generous support of visionary donors who are committed to groundbreaking medical research and transformative clinical care.

It was at the intersection of these two pursuits that Randall Roberts first encountered Cedars-Sinai. When he turned 60, Roberts went in for what he thought would be an ordinary colonoscopy — and received results that were anything but routine. He had colon cancer, and though the polyps were small, his doctor could not rule out the possibility that they had spread. For Roberts, the prognosis was mixed: He had a good chance for recovery, but only if he underwent a radical resection of his colon that could dramatically, and permanently, alter his quality of life. Roberts immediately started researching and discovered that Cedars-Sinai was one of the few medical centers in Southern California to offer an alternative outpatient procedure called endoscopic mucosal resection that is far less invasive than surgery. It was an easy decision, Roberts recalls, and the reward could not have been sweeter. “It only took an hour and a half, and I was cancer-free. I actually went out for Thai food that night and was in the gym a day later!” Roberts was so thrilled that he made a significant gift to Cedars-Sinai’s Circle of Friends, a program that allows patients to honor a physician, a nurse, a staff member or a volunteer who has provided outstanding care or service in the course of the patient’s experience at Cedars-Sinai. Roberts’ gift recognized the superior skill and care of his surgeons, Thomas Sokol, MD, and Laith Jamil, MD. “They’re doing important work not available anywhere else,” he says. “The best thing you can do with colon cancer is to catch it early and to be in good hands, and these guys are the real deal.”

Gratitude was also at the core of Robert and Georgia Roth’s decision to invest in Cedars-Sinai. A year after receiving a heart transplant under the care of the Medical Center’s Jon Kobashigawa, MD, Bob learned that his pre-transplant heart had damaged his kidneys; he would need a kidney transplant as well. With tremendous support from his family and the expert medical team that cared for him, after another transplant surgery, Bob was finally back on the road to good health. In recognition of the exceptional care he received, the couple made a significant gift last year to support ongoing research through the Robert S. Roth and Georgia L. Roth Family Foundation. In honor of their contribution, the Advanced Heart Disease Center lobby in Cedars-Sinai’s new Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion will bear their names when it opens in summer 2013. “We feel so blessed,” Georgia says. “We want to help other families.” Bob agrees and says he is eager for their gift to make heart transplants more accessible. “If we play even a small part in that, it will be a big reward.”

Academy Award®-winning actress, director and performer Barbra Streisand knows just how rewarding philanthropy can be. As the visionary philanthropist behind the Cedars-Sinai Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center, she has championed a vital cause: accelerating investigations into women’s heart health and closing the gender gap in cardiovascular research and care. “Women need to be educated about female cardiovascular disease, and the medical community must be propelled toward change,” she says. The Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center is leading the way, and this year, Streisand received the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Humanitarian Award for her remarkable efforts. Through her support, the Center has blazed


More than 7,746 donors contributed to Cedars-Sinai in FY 2012. Of these, more than 4,845 were grateful patients and family members who made gifts to show appreciation for the care they received.

a trail to deliver the best in comprehensive education, leading-edge research and extraordinary care, and its director, C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, is creating a permanent force for progress and discovery. Streisand is a compelling advocate, inspiring other major philanthropists to join her in reaching Dr. Bairey Merz’s goal. Founding Partners, each of whom has committed $1 million to the Center and its work, include The Diller – von Furstenberg Family Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, the Ralph and Ricky Lauren Family Foundation, Ronald O. Perelman, the Sumner M. Redstone Charitable Foundation, the Saban Family Foundation and the Women’s Self Worth Foundation. “We’re on the cusp of understanding the uniqueness, in terms of gender, in the way symptoms of heart disease present themselves,” Streisand says. “What gives me hope is knowing that the Center is here for us.”

Advancing Cedars-Sinai’s ability to promote wellness is central to the Board of Governors. At the heart of its mission is a focus on fundraising, leadership, service and an unwavering emphasis on helping Cedars-Sinai strengthen communities and the people within them. The group spearheaded the establishment of the Board of Governors Heart Stem Cell Center, and this year its members continued to fulfill a record-setting $20 million pledge on its behalf. In 2011, their support was a key factor in the successful completion of the world’s first Phase I clinical trial showing that treating heart attack patients with an infusion of their own heart-derived stem cells helps damaged hearts regrow healthy muscle. Led by Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, who serves as director of both the Center and of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, this research offers the potential to revolutionize cardiac medicine. Steve Hitter, chair of the Board of Governors, understands the urgency of the group’s work and takes pride in the energy that members bring to it. “Each of us is passionate about the role we play,” he says. “The Board of Governors brings attention to critical issues in global health, launching initiatives that have a lasting, positive impact on countless people’s lives.”

Making a difference is the objective of run for her,® a 5K run and friendship walk that supports ovarian cancer research at Cedars-Sinai and promotes awareness of the disease. The brainchild of Kelli Sargent, who was motivated by her mother Nanci’s valiant battle with cancer, this annual fundraising event began in 2005 with 700 people in a Cedars-Sinai parking lot. Today, it is one of the largest ovarian cancer run and walk events in the country, celebrating its seventh year in 2011 and attracting more than 5,000 participants nationwide. Nanci Sargent did not survive her illness — but, thanks to her guiding spirit, Cedars-Sinai has built one of the most comprehensive gynecologic cancer programs in the United States. Under the direction of Beth Karlan, MD, the Women’s Cancer Program is a recognized leader in early detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of women’s cancers.

Ask 92-year-old Ruth Cordish about her recipe for aging, and she may cite Cedars-Sinai as the secret to her longevity. For nearly two decades since her open-heart surgery at the Medical Center in 1993, Cordish has depended upon Cedars-Sinai cardiologist Steven Tabak, MD, to tend to her medical needs. “He began to take care of me right after surgery, and he still takes care of me,” she says. “I think it’s due to his excellent advice and treatment that I am as well as I am today.”

Philanthropy


A retired medical illustrator who specialized in medical films, Cordish had shot footage of numerous open-heart surgeries during her career. But she never imagined she would end up on the other side of the camera. “Fortunately,” she says, “I had a great result: I’m still here!” In 2011, her continued good fortune inspired her to make a planned gift to Cedars-Sinai to fund research into heart problems affecting women. “I have been so pleased with the treatment I’ve received at Cedars-Sinai,” she says. And, she continues, she hopes her investment will bear fruit “for other people like me.”

No matter the gift — whether they are honoring a healthcare provider, contributing to the construction of a new facility, establishing an innovative center of excellence or spearheading the start of exciting events and initiatives — donors to Cedars-Sinai become members of an extended family joined in common purpose: improving the well-being of our entire community. Their dedication to translating next-generation research into unparalleled patient care continues to distinguish Cedars-Sinai, as together we pioneer new frontiers in medicine.

MILESTONE GIFTS TO CEDARS-SINAI

July 1, 2011–June 30, 2012

Philanthropy

American Federation for Aging Research

Bloomberg Philanthropies

Irving Blum

The Diller – von Furstenberg Family Foundation

Fineberg Foundation

The Heart Foundation

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust

Joan and Irwin Jacobs

The Ralph and Ricky Lauren Family Foundation, Inc.

Lippman Family Foundation

The Lowell Milken Family Foundation

Paul Marciano Foundation

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

Eleanor and Glenn Padnick

Ronald O. Perelman

Sumner M. Redstone Charitable Foundation

Robert S. Roth and Georgia L. Roth Family Foundation

Helen Lho Ryu

Saban Family Foundation and Women’s Self Worth Foundation

The Shapell-Guerin Family Foundation

The Streisand Foundation

Tower Cancer Research Foundation

The Wunderkinder Foundation

Cedars-Sinai is also grateful for the generosity of those individuals and families who chose to remain anonymous.

PARTNERING WITH CEDARS-SINAI

Visit cedars-sinai.edu/giving to learn more about how you can partner with Cedars-Sinai to translate research into cures.


Financial SnapshotJuly 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012


Income and Expenses

Revenues from patient care and other sources $ 2,748,575,000

Expenses 2,599,481,000

Operating income 149,094,000

Investment losses (16,498,000)

Net income $ 132,596,000

Uses of Net Income

Long-term debt to be repaid $ 1,169,916,000

Capital expenditures for facilities, renovation, technology and other $ 296,963,000

This year’s payment on long-term debt $ 30,574,000

Community benefit contribution

Traditional charity care and uninsured patients $ 42,386,000

Unreimbursed cost of caring for Medi-Cal patients 95,656,000

Unreimbursed cost of caring for Medicare patients 304,730,000

Research expenditures 125,573,000

Other Community Benefit programs 71,942,000

Total $640,287,000

key statistics

Admissions 49,186

Patient days 255,010

Emergency visits 83,366

Outpatient visits 611,410

Licensed beds (as of October 2012) 896

Employees (FTEs) 10,837

Physicians on medical staff 2,100

Volunteers 2,000+

Board of Directors

John BendheimSteven D. Broidy*Ilana Cass, MDDale CochranJohn ColemanRobert DavidsonRobert M. EllerDeborah Freund, PhDMark S. GreenfieldAndy HeywardSteven M. HitterSue Neuman HochbergSheila Kar, MDBeth Karlan, MDScott Karlan, MD****Jeffrey KatzenbergAndrew Klein, MDJohn C. Law*Thomas J. Leanse, Esq.Todd M. MorganZab Mosenifar, MDJames A. NathanSteven NicholsLuis NogalesLouise PhanstielAntony P. ResslerSteven RomickMark S. Siegel*Paul Silka, MDRobert Silverstein**Steven SpielbergLeslie VermutJay S. WintrobPhillip Zakowski, MD

Life Trustees

Bernard BriskinNorman R. BrokawJudy CarrollMaxine N. DunitzAaron R. EshmanLawrence N. Field***Chester FiresteinMichael R. FormanStanley M. FreemanMarilyn GilfenbainBram GoldsmithStanley GrinsteinPhilip E. HixonIrwin Hoffman, MDS. Rexford Kennamer, MDSally KurtzmanMarion LaurieDon S. Levin***Jane LipstoneJohn W. MackStuart J. MarylanderEdward MeltzerWalter MirischLynda OschinBruce W. RabinDavid I. SapersteinMilton SlotkinCarmen Harvey Warschaw*****Sanford B. WeissElaine WintersWalter Zifkin

Executive Management

Peter E. Braveman, Esq. Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs

Darren Dworkin Senior Vice President for Enterprise Information Systems and Chief Information Officer

Jeanne Flores Senior Vice President for Human Resources and Organizational Development

Mark Gavens Senior Vice President for Clinical Care Services and Chief Operating Officer

Thomas D. Gordon Senior Vice President for Medical Network

Richard B. Jacobs Senior Vice President for System Development and Chief Strategy Officer

Michael L. Langberg, MD Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer

Shlomo Melmed, MD Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Chief Academic Officer and Dean of the Medical Faculty

Arthur J. Ochoa, Esq. Senior Vice President for Community Relations and Development and Chief Development Officer

Edward M. Prunchunas Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer

© 2012 Cedars-Sinai

Leadership 2012

Lawrence B. PlattChair, Board of Directors

Thomas M. PriselacPresident and CEO

Vera GuerinVice Chair

Marc RapaportSecretary

* Past Chair of the Board ** Past Chair of the Board, Deceased *** Honorary Life Trustee **** Chief of Staff ***** Deceased

8700 Beverly BoulevardLos Angeles, California 90048

1-800-cedars-1cedars-sinai.edu

Our Mission

Cedars-Sinai Health System, a nonprofit, independent healthcare organization, is committed to:

Leadership and excellence in delivering quality healthcare services.

Expanding the horizons of medical knowledge through biomedical research.

Educating and training physicians and other healthcare professionals.

Striving to improve the health status of our community.

Quality patient care is our priority. Providing excellent clinical and service quality, offering compassionate care, and supporting research and medical education are essential to our mission.

This mission is founded in the ethical and cultural precepts of the Judaic tradition, which inspires devotion to the art and science of healing, and to the care we give our patients and staff.

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